After combing through weeks of phone records (multiple phones) of Associated Press journalists, the Obama Justice Department was able to identify and prosecute AP's source on a story about a terrorist plot in Yemen. The source, a former FBI agent, pled guilty yesterday. This is from Agence France-Presse:
Although Obama had promised openness when he entered office, his administration has pursued an unprecedented crackdown on leaks from government employees, attempting more prosecutions under the 1917 Espionage Act than all previous administrations. A US Army private, Bradley Manning, was sentenced to 35 years in prison in August for passing a trove of classified documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. Manning's supporters defended him as a whistleblower trying to shed light on US wars and secret foreign policy making but prosecutors called the soldier a "traitor."
John Kiriakou, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, was charged with leaking secrets after he gave an interview to ABC television describing the use of water boarding in interrogations of terror suspects under the Bush administration. He pleaded guilty in 2012 to disclosing the name of a covert CIA officer and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Monday's plea agreement serves as a warning to intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who has been charged with espionage and condemned for his dramatic disclosures on US electronic surveillance.
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